John Abraham’s action fest has an impressive run at the ticket counters and rakes in Rs 20.25 crore in the opening weekend

After the runaway success of their maiden collaboration venture Vicky Donor, filmmaker Shoojit Sircar and actor-producer John Abraham joined hands again to attempt a war-based film Madras Cafe, which released last week and has yielded positive results at the box office. Not only did the film manage to make decent moolah at the box office, but critics have given the movie an unanimous thumbs up and have loved the way Sircar has dealt with the sensitive subject.

Having opened across 1,200 screens nationwide, the political thriller saw an encouraging opening – approximately Rs 5 crore on Friday, Rs 6.75 crore on Saturday and the highest at Rs 8.50 crore nett on Sunday. According to Box Office India, “The film did well in Mumbai, Delhi/UP, East Punjab, West Bengal, Nizam and Mysore, but not Rajasthan, which was lower than all the above mentioned circuits.” The makers suggest the film has collected Rs 20.50 crore nett.

Exhibitor-distributor Akshaye Rathi explains, “Madras Cafe is not a conventional commercial film with mass appeal, but it’s a film that engages the viewer right from the very onset! The word of mouth for MC has been almost unanimously positive and that has reflected in the BO numbers which have grown by the day!”

Trade analyst and critic Taran Adarsh tweeted, “Madras Cafe is zooming upwards. Not just plexes of urban centres, even single screens/mass circuits have witnessed an upswing in biz. WOW!” While Ajit Andhare , COO, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, says, “The success of MC reaffirms our belief that now the mainstream Indian audience is opening to new treatment and narratives and are looking beyond the standard Bollywood fare. While these segments existed on the fringes for the mainstream audience to respond to, this cinema consistently is now establishing a healthy trend that’s here to stay and that’s where we thrive.”

Meanwhile, Chennai Express continues a great run in its second week too. After grossing over Rs 150 crore in its opening week, the Shahrukh Khan-Deepika Padukone-starrer has now crossed the Rs 200 crore mark in the second week and is still going strong.

As far as the John Abraham solo film is concerned, it will certainly recover its production cost at the BO considering the movie’s Rs 25 crore budget. Watch this space for more updates!